Unload My Mind

Amid the renewed political focus on enhancing airport security, attention is turning to a technological advancement that will have mind-reading machines.

It is not the mind that the machine needs to read but the intention. It is a Roman saying that the way to Hell is paved with good intentions, but according to the Torah intention is how God judges the human being, as is taught: God unifies with the good intentions to make them come true–and there is no Hell.

The Cabala explains how intention can come from the soul or from the body. The intention of the body is expressed through the animal cursing through our blood whose survival is paramount; the soul comes in through the right side of the brain initiating cogent thoughts that a machine could monitor.

Thoughts are considered the secret property of the person according to the Torah/Teaching–only God knows the intention of the human being. The mind is the place where the merger between heaven and earth is played out.

This invasion of privacy could not be more intrusive–scanning one’s brain for their thoughts. Bob Dylan says in one of his earlier songs, “I need a dump truck to unload my mind.”